Runestones

A runestone is a catch-all term magical device that causes a mage to prepare a spell. The nice thing about runestones is that anyone with magical ability can use them, even if you don't know the spell, or have training in that school of magic. However using a spell not of your mana type is sorcery skill and can be dangerous. Depending on the spell, it does take a bit of fine tweaking to be able to properly cast it. When you work with runestones, you are working your Arcana skill.

Over the centuries scholars have found ways to scribe spell patterns into certain minerals. Any given mineral can only hold a specific type of spell pattern. Some spell patterns can be stored in a few types of minerals. While the color or setting of the mineral might change (rune, jewelry, wand, etc) the inherent crystalline structure that dictates what pattern might be impregnated into the mineral does not change.

Today we know runestones function due to the presence of hollows and channels in a mass of mana-resisting material. The resistance causes carefully harnessed mana to avoid the mass entirely, saturating the hollow components instead. Naturally occurring runestones, though freakishly rare, may have been the source of mankind's first spells. Modern runestones are often constructed by carefully carving and bonding together multiple layers of mana-resistant wood or rock, or through sand casting mana-resistant metal.

Using a Runestone

• FOCUS on your runestone. When you focus, you'll get a dialogue like this:

You focus your magical senses on a colorful elbaite runestone. Though not actively magical, the runestone is made out of a material that resists the flow of mana. Tiny tunnels and furrows are present in the runestone, which form the shape of a spell pattern. You recognize the pattern of the Instinct spell. You should get three more spells out of the runestone before it wears out. Roundtime: 2 sec.

With enough skill, this will tell you the spell and the charges remaining. Simply focusing on a rune over and over is a great way for beginners to learn Arcana skill, as well as Sorcery skill if the rune is one of another mana type than the users.

• INVOKE or CHARGE the runestone to begin casting the spell. You will need to have recently focused on the rune in order to properly INVOKE or CHARGE it.

Closing your eyes, you carefully bend some mana streams through a shining calavarite runestone. The saturated tunnels in the runestone form the foundation of a spell pattern. With this template in place, you begin preparing the Arc Light spell. That will disrupt less than a quarter of your current attunement.

Now that you are preparing the spell, you are able to HARNESS more power if you'd like into the spell, or use cambrinth. When the spell is prepared, simply CAST it.

Barbarians are able to utilize runestones in various meditations via the MEDITATE command.

Common Runestone Minerals

Runestone Mineral	Spell	Mana	Native Difficulty	Sorcery Cap
asketine	Compost	life	0 / 500	66
avaes	Clear Vision	lunar	0 / 480	91
axinite	Mental Blast	lunar	250 / 1000	<91
azurite	Shadows	lunar	0 / 400	<91
calavarite	Arc Light	elemental	10 / 600
celestite	Refractive Field	lunar	0 / 600	<91
elbaite	Instinct	life	20 / 800
electrum	Eagle's Cry	life	0 / 500
erythrite	Rejuvenation	holy	0 / 600
hafaltu	Ethereal Shield	elemental	0 / 500
iheaneu'a	Psychic Shield	lunar	0 / 600
ilmenite	Lightning Bolt	elemental	100 / 800
imnera	Zephyr	elemental	10 / 600
indakar	Protection from Evil	holy	0 / 600
lemicule	Air Bubble	elemental	10 / 600
malachite	Air Bubble	elemental	10 / 600
quartz	Refresh	life	0 / 400
rhodonite	Fire Shards	elemental	0 / 400
scheelite	Fire Ball	elemental	80 / 800
selenite	Frostbite	elemental	80 / 800
sraeth	Soul Bonding	holy	0 / 600
topaz	Protection from Evil	holy	0 / 600
xibaryl	Hypnotize	lunar	metaspell	<91
zengalmi	Gar Zeng	elemental	0 / 400

Note: Spell difficulty moves from intro to basic when using it is sorcery (outside your native mana type).

Additionally, some spells are just a little more difficult to cast when they are being used by sorcery.

Rune Jewelry

In the world, you will find pieces of jewelry that have one of the stones above listed, like a heavy golden sunfish pendant with delicate pink erythrite stripes or a skeletal asketine-veined leaf charm. If you look at the types of runestones above, you can match the stone in your piece of jewelry to the spell it will cast.

Jewelry has similar properties to runes - they can be FOCUSed and then you INVOKE them to use the spell. Eventually, they will break as well. You cannot charge runic jewelry.

Item	Spell	Rare	Incomplete
Chipped rhodonite ring	Fire Shards	false
Inscribed calavarite brooch	Arc Light	false
Asketine unicorn pin	Compost	true
Broad mistwood staff immaculately carved with bestial images		true

Complex runestones

While the mechanics are fundamentally different, they function almost identically to the iconic devices that inspired them. The chief difference is that the conductive pathways of devices like this can be invoked with any percentage of mana used by its spell.

Complex runestones function due to the presence of mana-conducting pathways embedded within the cube. Carefully harnessed mana will favor the conductive paths over the nominal resistance of the cube's mass, saturating them and forming the framework of a spell pattern. Complex runestones are a modern invention, favored for the small size and variety of forms they can take, but often cost a premium due to the advanced metallurgy and tools required to work with the tiny, mana-conductive filaments.

Runestone merchants

• Sierack's Reagents in Shard
• Kalazashi's House of Majik in Ratha sells rune jewelry.

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